Energy is at the core of what has driven Scott Slisher’s super-charged engineering career.

From his time as a management trainee with NiSource, to being chief operating officer of Solargenix Energy, and, ultimately, his current position as president of energy management for AEP Energy Inc., Slisher’s career has been full of energy.

At AEP Energy Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of American Electric Power (one of the largest electric utilities in the United States), Slisher’s teams are responsible for the growth and execution of strategy and sales for residential and large-scale customer opportunities across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. AEP Energy solutions include deregulated power, natural gas, curtailment services, and energy management.

Slisher characterizes his career field as “a relatively quiet industry that in the past has been much more driven by policy rather than markets or technology.”So what has changed?

“Technology is really starting to change and define markets, and it is moving faster than policy makers can keep up with,” he says.

Those disruptive technologies, according to Slisher, have created a high-demand energy marketplace in which high-tech devices produce and exchange data at prolific rates. At the same time, innovations in solar and fuel cells are creating incredible challenges to the nation’s energy infrastructure.

“The current operating model does not envision or have a way to deal with those disrupters,” says the northern Indiana native. “There is going to be a lot of friction and conflict as we move from a centralized, monopolistic energy policy model to a decentralized self-generation or technology enabled model.”

The convergence of technology and energy may be what fuels Slisher’s passion and drive for his chosen career, but he also credits his Rose-Hulman education for his successes. “Engineering establishes a problem-solving mentality that’s needed in business today. Rose-Hulman gives you that mental edge,” he says.